At the Table with Clive Gray

“I was raised on a big farm,” says Clive Gray, owner of Grayson Mercantile. “Every meal we ate was at the table. I don’t think there’s anything better you can do than get people together at the dinner table.” And for Gray, fall is the perfect time for such gatherings. The gifts of his summer garden have been planted, harvested and either preserved or frozen; there’s nothing left to do but enjoy them. Gray loves to welcome guests to his rustic cabin, Grayson Farm at Carter Hollow, and they often tell him that when they pass through his property’s gates, it’s like entering another world. They get to leave all the “drama trauma” of current headlines behind, he says. They’re greeted with a full dinner table, one that’s likely to include his mother Nola’s pumpkin cake. “She made it every fall,” he says.